Greats of Golf at Insperity Invitational Press Conference

DAVE SENKO: Okay, guys, not much in the way of introductions but Lee Trevino, Jack
Nicklaus, Gary Player. We’ll just open it up for questions, just fire away.

Q. (Question about Arnold Palmer.)

JACK NICKLAUS: I think we all miss our friend.

Q. Lee?

LEE TREVINO: I don’t think there’s much you can say. I never played a lot with him. Jack played a lot with him, Gary played a lot with him, but I played maybe one practice round that I can ever remember playing with him.

I don’t think a day went by when he was alive that I didn’t think about Arnold Palmer if we were playing golf, at least not me. Now that we’ve lost him, I think about him all the time.

And everywhere that I go, I go to the course every day and I see different people and they always ask me about Arnie. The one thing I said once, I don’t remember where I was, I think I was in El Dorado, I was doing a little thing there for charity, and I told them, it’s like these two guys here, when you met them, you remember where and you probably remember the date. And that was the thing about Arnie. I don’t know of anyone who met Arnold Palmer that couldn’t remember the first time they met him. He was a special guy, yeah.

Q. What was your story?

LEE TREVINO: My first time was he congratulated me at Rochester when I won the U.S. Open. He had played in the last group because television was just starting to come into golf. And remember, the USGA wanted Arnie to play in the last group. I think he had missed the cut or just barely made the cut, and Arnie didn’t want to do it and they teamed him with Jack Lewis and he played behind Yancey and I.

JACK NICKLAUS: Are you serious?

LEE TREVINO: Yes, sir. He played behind us.

JACK NICKLAUS: I played in front of you, didn’t I?

LEE TREVINO: Yes, two groups in front of me.

JACK NICKLAUS: I was going to say, I played just in front of you. Every time I turned around, all you did was hole another putt.

LEE TREVINO: But I was leaking a little oil coming home. I got it up and down on 16, 17 and 18. I do remember that.

But that’s the first time I met him. I actually met him there. I had seen him on the course before, but personally I had never met him before.

Q. Do you remember — you told a great story in Branson about him basically retiring on the course down at Augusta Pines. What year was that?

LEE TREVINO: God, I have no clue. I think it was — the last year that we played Augusta Pines it may have been five or six years ago. I don’t remember. Yeah, we were playing there.

Q. Jack, when did you first have a conversation with Arnie?

JACK NICKLAUS: 1958 in Athens, Ohio. I was 18.

Q. Gary?

GARY PLAYER: The first time I saw Arnold was 1957 at Tam O’Shanter in Chicago and Jimmy Demaret, who was from Houston, he and Lee were two of some of the greatest characters I ever met in my life, always happy. He said, “You’ve got to come and see this guy hit a ball.” He had a pair of socks on and these long, yellow pants and a vest that you could see through, you know, with hair going through.

JACK NICKLAUS: Well, he had to have something to check the wind.

GARY PLAYER: And I stood there and he said, “I want you to watch this guy hit a ball.” And I said, “Well, that’s not a golfer, that’s a blacksmith,” with his arms, big forearms that he had and this very unusual swing. It wasn’t a thing of beauty but it was effective. And the (inaudible) never says, “How well are you swinging? How well are you depositing?”

And the great story that happened — first of all, because I have a habit of digressing. Arnold Palmer, we all know what he did for golf, we all know he was a man full of love. We have nothing but the utmost of compliments for him, but we mustn’t forget death. When you have a life to the extent that he had, and he had a great life, when you die, it’s a celebration, it’s not a tragedy.

We all have different views on death. For me, it’s a celebration. I believe you go to a better place. And he had a wonderful life, so what more could you ask for? But at Tam O’Shanter, I’ll never forget, he had a man, Bobby Locke from South Africa, and he played Snead in South Africa when Snead was at his hype. Played him 22 matches, beat him 18 times, they tied twice and Snead beat him twice.

So Snead said to the guys, “When this man comes to South Africa, you back him. Most of you have never heard of him.” He arrives and Lloyd Mangrum comes up to him and he says — I’m walking around with Locke all over because he was our big guy in South Africa and Lloyd Mangrum says, “Hello, Muffin Face.” He had a very fat face. And Locke’s laughing. And he said, “How do you do?” And he said, “They tell me how good you are, would you like to have your Cadillac against my Cadillac?”

Man, imagine a young guy like me, I don’t have five cents to rub together and here a guy who wants to bet a Cadillac.

He says, “I’ll have a Cadillac against yours.” And I think Locke beat him by 15 shots. And honestly, he came and gave him the keys and Locke took the keys and rattled them like that in front of him and he said — he called me Captain. He said, “Captain, thank God I beat him because I don’t own a Cadillac.” He didn’t have a Cadillac to bet, but he was quite happy for beating him.

Q. Lee, we’re here in Houston where things kind of got started for you, you had your very first professional victory at Sharpstown?

LEE TREVINO: Yeah, right here in 1965.

GARY PLAYER: On this golf course?

LEE TREVINO: No, Sharpstown. I had never played in a golf tournament before. That was the first tournament I ever played in. I never played an amateur tournament or pro tournament, and I beat Frank Wharton in a playoff right here not too far away.

JACK NICKLAUS: In Sharpstown?

LEE TREVINO: Yeah. That was when I was introduced to real bad traffic. I had a ’55 Chevy and I mean it was boiling hot because they were moving about two miles an hour. It’s the only place in the world that I’ve ever been that I had a flat tire. Got out, changed it and I lost two spots. And I don’t think it’s gotten much better. Whoa, was it bad.

It was right here, yeah. Then I came back and defended the next year. I won in ’66 also.

JACK NICKLAUS: A regular Tour tournament?

LEE TREVINO: No. But I’ll tell you, Bobby Nichols was playing in it, Homero Blancas played in it. All the Houston university boys played.

JACK NICKLAUS: I played at Sharpstown, but I must not have been —

LEE TREVINO: 1965. Texas State Open, not the Texas Open.

GARY PLAYER: In 1978 I won the Masters seven shots behind Tom Watson and we went to the Tournament of Champions at La Costa and I was 7 behind Ballesteros and shot 65 on a very cold, windy day.

We came here and Andy Bean, who you know was my size when he was six, he says, “You little sawed-off South African runt.” He says, “You’re not going to beat me like you beat Watson.”

I said, “Andy, of course I’m not, you’re six shots ahead of me.” I shot 64 and beat him. So I went to him and I grabbed him and I pulled his head down and I said, “You little redneck, don’t you ever talk to me like that again,” and I ran away as fast as I could.

LEE TREVINO: I brought his 16-year-old here because Gary had to go and play in the Tournament of Champions, and I brought him here and we went over to a chicken place. I’ll never forget sharing a room, and we played with Demaret the next day.

So we took him over to the motel room and he had his own bed over there. You know, his dad never let him eat sweets or anything. So I said, “C’mon, man, you’re with me.” No beer, we’re not drinking, but we’ve got a bucket of chicken. He says, “What are those there?” I said, “Those are apple turnovers.” He says, “Apple what?” I said, “Apple turnovers.” I said, “Get three or four of them.” Okay, so I put them in a bag, I bought the bag. Then I got six jalapenos and I put them in another bag.

We were sitting on the floor. He’s lying on the floor eating fried chicken watching the tube as he called it. The box, yeah. And so he’s watching TV and he looks at the jalapenos and he’s eating and he says, “What are those, man?” I said, “Those are pickles.” He said, “What?” I said, “Pickles, try one.” He goes — I caught him over by the Chevy dealership about two blocks away. Oh, my God, he was in there running that water in his mouth.

Gary won three in a row that year.

Q. Several years ago you were asked this question all the time and now you’re never asked it for obvious reasons. Would it have been good for golf if we had a weekly, monthly, Tiger’s three away from Jack’s record, Tiger’s now two away from Jack’s record, Tiger’s one away?

JACK NICKLAUS: I hadn’t noticed that.

Q. Do you think — I mean would that have spurred — would it have been a bad thing if Tiger had slowly gained on your record? He had been one away and he had three majors to play, do you think that would have helped golf somehow if he had kept progressing the way he was progressing and tied your record or eclipsed your major record or something?

JACK NICKLAUS: Not in my point of view. No, I think golf’s doing all right. I feel bad for Tiger that he’s — I said at the Masters dinner, we talked about it and we talked about how much he hurt.

You know, I made some suggestions to him about who I would see and so forth, so he went to go see him and after he left, I talked to the fella and he said, “He won’t be back.” I said, “Why’s that?” He said, “He’s in too much pain.” He says, “He can’t stand up for 10 minutes, and I got him actually to stand for 12 and that’s as long as he could stand.” He says, “His is nerve pain and it’s not going to go away that easy.” He says, “It’s going to take some time. I can take care of him, but I don’t think he’ll be patient enough to do so.” Four days later he was operated on again.

So, you know, I feel bad for Tiger because you have to have sympathy or feelings for anybody who’s suffering, and particularly, you know, a fellow competitor.

I told Tiger a thousand times, I said, “Tiger, nobody wants their records broken but I don’t want you not to be able to have the opportunity and be healthy to try to do so.” So I’m happy to help him with that and do whatever. Obviously he’s got to do his part.

But I like Tiger. I would like to see him play. Do I think he adds to the game? He absolutely adds to the game. We’re just sorry that he’s not out here.

Q. Have we seen the last of him as a major championship competitor?

JACK NICKLAUS: I don’t know. That’s going to be his thing. GARY PLAYER: Let me give you the scenario to your question. Jack finished second — try and digest this for a minute: He finished second 19 times. I finished second in seven majors, which I think is quite remarkable. Nineteen times?

Now, but here’s the scenario. Had Jack come along when Tiger was playing and Tiger had had the 18 majors on the board, Jack would have won 22 because he came to majors sometimes and never really prepared, what I called preparation or the way Tiger prepared or the way Hogan prepared. He would come in on a Tuesday sometimes and still finished second.

So he would have — if he had to have eclipsed the record, he would have been there four days before, and I promise you he would have won more than 20 majors.

LEE TREVINO: Well, the thing too, Gary —

JACK NICKLAUS: Maybe not necessarily.

LEE TREVINO: The thing, too, that you’ve got to understand, back in that time we didn’t know that the majors were that important. We didn’t know that they were going to measure you by that. I think Jack, I heard him say it once, he said, “Yeah, I think the way that they’re doing it today, I might have practiced a little bit harder.” Maybe, maybe.

JACK NICKLAUS: Well, if I had any idea that there was a Tiger Woods on the scene, I would have probably tried to win more majors. But, you know, my record is what it is and we’re — all our records, nobody has to be ashamed of their records. All three of us have good records. You just go — you live your life, you get done with your life as far as your competitive life and whatever it measures.

Now, somebody comes along like Tiger, you said, “Oh my gosh, if that’s what he set his goal on, maybe I should have worked a little harder earlier.” But once I passed Bob Jones’ record, I really didn’t — you know, I still liked to play golf and I was pretty young, but I didn’t really set my sights on trying to win 18, 20, 25 majors. That was not my goal. I just liked to play and I enjoyed it.

GARY PLAYER: Nobody ever, I don’t like to use the word never, but Jack is unequivocally the best player the world has ever seen. And you’ve got to go — don’t tell me how pretty a guy’s swing is or what he does, how far he hits the ball. I’m so tired of hearing how far they hit. It’s the putt that wins the tournament, and the mind.

But his record is the best. I don’t see anybody ever breaking that record. They might, but I don’t think so. All these ifs and ands don’t mean a thing. It’s what’s in the book that counts, and you judge players by looking at their record book.

I will say this, one “if” that sticks in my mind. Ben Hogan, who was the best striker from tee to green and the best golf swing I saw, he won nine majors but he went to war for five years and had an accident and he wasn’t allowed to play basically for two years in his prime. So that would have been interesting to see what would have happened.

JACK NICKLAUS: Hogan was terrific.

Q. Jack, if you would, what’s important to you now in your life? You have your grandchildren, all 22 of them.

JACK NICKLAUS: Well, this afternoon the most important thing is that Gary and Lee and I clobber these guys we’re playing with.

LEE TREVINO: I just don’t want to wet the bed.

JACK NICKLAUS: That’s the most important thing right now.

LEE TREVINO: That’s my number one goal is not to wet the bed.

JACK NICKLAUS: I spend —

Q. How do you get around to see them more?

JACK NICKLAUS: See what, my grandkids?

Q. Yeah.

JACK NICKLAUS: Oh, we get around. Last Saturday I went to Charlie’s last regular season game at home at Rutgers — Charlie’s a senior, so we went up for senior day and they beat Ohio State in overtime. That will probably get them in the NCAA.

I really get a big kick out of those kinds of things. It’s fun to do things and watch your grandkids. I watched my kids do things, but the grandkids are a little different. Your kids are your kids, you’re trying to raise them as well as that, and I’m not raising my grandkids. My kids can do that.

To be able to do that, I love going to Buffalo and watching Nick (O’Leary) play at Buffalo. We had the state championship semifinals the night before we went up to the Rutgers game. And I’ve got two grandsons playing on a lacrosse team. You know, I love being part of what they do.

I mean, Gary’s the same way and I’m sure Lee is, too. It’s a different experience. My golfing days are over. I enjoy coming over here and playing with these guys, fiddling around. We hit it probably 60 percent of what we used to hit it and so, you know, it is what it is. But it’s fun. Somebody said, “Why do you do that?” I said, “Because I enjoy being with my friends, I enjoy playing a little bit of golf.”

Am I very good anymore? No. Am I really terrible? Yes. But we have a good time and I see all the other guys. That’s why we come. Otherwise, why would we go out and expose ourselves to that kind of a thing?

So it’s just a nice event— I’m going fishing tomorrow. I’m getting home tomorrow, a friend of mine’s coming down from Ohio, we’re going to the Bahamas for about four days, and we’ll have a great time. It’s one of my college fraternity brothers and we’ve been friends for, good gracious, 60 years. So those are the things that we do. You know, our lives have changed. Competition and whether Tiger Woods breaks my record or not is not of very much importance to me anymore. It would be nice to see him play.

GARY PLAYER: He ain’t going to break your record.

JACK NICKLAUS: Even if he does or if somebody else comes along and breaks it, that’s okay. Records are made to be broken. I think it’s good for the game of golf to have that stimulus, and Tiger was a great stimulus in the game as it related to what I did when I competed. Tiger was great for me. Every time Tiger won a tournament and had his name in the paper, mine was right beside it. That was pretty good for my brand, you know. So there was nothing wrong with that.

But our lives have changed. Good gracious, Gary’s 81, Lee and I are both 77, and we’re just delighted to be here and to be able to do what we’re doing.

GARY PLAYER: And you’re lucky, you and I both have 22 grandchildren. I have 15 American grandchildren, but I mean the others are 10,000 miles apart. It’s very difficult for me. And I do make an effort to go and see them or bring them to see me. I’m taking all 50 of them on a holiday to Taiwan or to Bangkok next week. I’ll have to win this tournament to break even.

JACK NICKLAUS: He’s taking every one of them. Think of that. Every one of them.

GARY PLAYER: And their friends and their mothers-in-law and the whole lot.

JACK NICKLAUS: He rented the whole country.

GARY PLAYER: And they all eat like it’s the Last Supper.

LEE TREVINO: Jack’s right, we’ve lost 60 percent. I think I’ve lost more than that. I hit a
5-iron yesterday 17 yards.

JACK NICKLAUS: Solid?

LEE TREVINO: You know the white birds were following me like the plow for worms. I dug holes over there on that course that you’ve never seen before.

JACK NICKLAUS: I designed that course, come on, don’t dig up my course.

LEE TREVINO: My 5-iron went 17 yards. My God.

Q. How many times do each of you swing a golf club now on average, ballpark?

LEE TREVINO: Every day. Hell, yeah, I go in the shop. I have a shop and I beat theclubs up and then it gives me a reason to go out there. Then I go down in the dungeon and I pick out an old set that I couldn’t use to begin with but they’re a year old, so I’ll take them back out and I’ll go hit balls.

It’s just like my putter. Everybody’s got a cover on their putter. They three-putt and they put the cover back on it. The hell with that, I’m not putting that cover back on it if I three-putt. It’s going to ride the next hole naked, I’m telling you. I’m not putting that cover back on that putter. But I do it every day.

JACK NICKLAUS: I think I probably play the least. I’ll finish here today, I looked at my schedule, I don’t have another time to play golf that I can see — I can’t see — I may not play again until fall. If I don’t, I won’t hit a ball. I might have a round somewhere when I’ve got a charity event or something that I’ve got to do, but right now I don’t have anything on my schedule probably until September or October, which may be the next ball I hit.

Q. Minnesota?

JACK NICKLAUS: Oh, Minnesota. See? I may have one, we do, I’m sorry. I’m playing in three weeks in Minnesota. August, yeah, that will be the next time I play.

Q. Gary?

GARY PLAYER: When I go back to South Africa, I’m working on my ranch from early in the morning until early in the evening and have my own golf course and I’ve never played it.

JACK NICKLAUS: You’ve never played your little par 3?

GARY PLAYER: Never played it. Can you believe this?

JACK NICKLAUS: Well, when we were down there we played it.

GARY PLAYER: Well, a few holes. We played one hole, which we named after you,
Cactus Jack. He’s such a damn competitor. We hit off this par 3 and I hit it about six feet. He hit the next one 10 feet. He didn’t want to stop until he hit one inside of me.

But anyway, when I’m there, I’m working hard. December I play every day with my grandchildren. So I don’t play at all for three months, then I do have one month in December when I play. But then I’m still traveling extensively and working very hard for seven months, of which I do play quite a bit.

Q. Gentlemen, Mother’s Day is next week. What are some qualities you inherited from your mother?

JACK NICKLAUS: My mother sort of stayed in the background. She was fairly quiet. She let my dad be the lead on both my sister and me.

I think that I have a tendency now that I’ve learned sort of around my grandkids, I sort of keep my mouth shut and let them go ahead and do their own thing, unless they ask. My mother always did that. She just never really got involved unless she was asked. That doesn’t sound like me, but I think that that was a quality that I probably got from her, which has been learned.

LEE TREVINO: Well, as you well know, my mom and my grandad raised me. I didn’t know my dad. The one thing that my mom I think instilled in me more than anything is to be honest. She said, “Don’t ever, ever take anybody else’s property.” And I was scared to death of her and so that’s how I’ve tried to live my life is to be straight up. When I say something, it’s my word, it’s bond. I’ll tell you I’m going to do something. I think that’s probably what I got from her.

GARY PLAYER: My mother was dying of cancer and she died at 44, and I was standing next to her and I’m eight years of age, and she’s speaking to a friend of hers on the phone called Dorothy. And the phones were cranked in those days and I heard Dorothy say, “Muriel,” which is my mother’s name, “How are you feeling?” And she was in agony. She said, “I’ve never felt better in my life,” and she put the phone down. And I said, “Mom, why did you tell such a lie?” She said, “Well, Gary, remember, never give anybody else your problems because everybody has their own problems,” and everybody in life has problems, as Jack and I were discussing this morning.

And the other thing I learned, she said, “Have love in your heart,” and she said, “Honor your mother and your father all your life.” She obviously knew she was going to die within six months, to honor your mother and your father.

And this, unfortunately we live in a world now, particularly in the western world, where it doesn’t apply. A survey’s been done recently, we have over 70 percent of families where children tell their parents what to do.

JACK NICKLAUS: Isn’t that odd, we were talking about that exact same thing coming out in the car this morning, talking about his mother.

Q. (Inaudible) often talked about winning the U.S. Amateur as the event that kind of told him beyond any question of a doubt he had what was needed to be a top-level golfer. Can I get each of you three to tell me if you have an event that it went off in your head and you said, “Wow, now I know I can do this?”

GARY PLAYER: Well, for me, first, I was 23 years of age and I get in the British Open and I don’t have much money and my wife arrives there, my daughter’s with her. I didn’t have the money to go back and see her born, which I would have liked to. And I go to the British Open and I tell you, I go to that club, Muirfield. You think Augusta’s tough? I go there and I’m going to go practice for 10 days and the second — “What do you want?” “Good morning, sir. I’ve come to practice for The Open.” He says, “You’re not practicing here, my boy.” It’s like somebody walking into Augusta.

Anyway, I managed to turn him around, telling him I was poor and I had a baby and I was going to win The Open. He said, “On top of it you’re an arrogant little bastard as well.”

Well, I did win The Open and I befriended him. When I won there, wow, all of a sudden the
money started to come in and what a help that was.

JACK NICKLAUS: Was that Paddy?

GARY PLAYER: No, his name was — gee, I know his name. Anyway —

LEE TREVINO: Was it in St. Louis?

GARY PLAYER: No, this was Muirfield. Where you won The Open, man. You talk about Augusta —

JACK NICKLAUS: We all three won there.

GARY PLAYER: We all three won there.

LEE TREVINO: I had the villa down there by the tennis court, Jack played tennis every night down there, and I bought a television and put it in the room. They didn’t have TVs in the room. I never went to the dining room.

GARY PLAYER: His name has just come to me. Colonel Evans Loam (phonetic) and those guys, Brigadier Brickman— these guys, they have no idea what it’s like. And the damn fairways were this long and I swear to God there were white daisies on the fairway. As I looked from the clubhouse, I saw these white daisies.

JACK NICKLAUS: Covered.

GARY PLAYER: It was another world. Do you know how much I won for winning The
Open? A thousand pounds, and today it’s a million pounds.

JACK NICKLAUS: Isn’t that funny? Muirfield, the first time I was there, it was in May at the
Walker Cup matches, covered with daisies.

GARY PLAYER: That’s why the three of us, when we play in the wind, we’ve got a 7-iron to the green. I often practice hitting a 4-iron 150 yards because you didn’t want to try to hit it low. It’s hard enough to hit the ball straight and low. All you have to do is take a 4-iron and do that, that’s going to go low. It’s too difficult to hit it low and straight.

So we grew up at a completely different time. And I can’t help but say because Jack always said to me how good Bobby Jones was and I was so ignorant, almost arrogant, I didn’t believe how good he was until I watched a video year ago. What a golf swing. With a broomstick as a handle and he had a shot at Lytham —

JACK NICKLAUS: Seventeenth hole.

GARY PLAYER: — out of that bunker. Must be 200 yards and you go in the clubhouse, it looks like a frying pan of a club. No grooves and a shaft that thick and a chamois. Boy, you have to have talent.

JACK NICKLAUS: When we say that the fairways at Muirfield had daisies on them, does that tell you how often they cut them? Because if they cut the fairways, you wouldn’t have the daisies. In those days, they cut them a couple times a summer probably.

Anyway, to answer your question, for me it was two events. One was the U.S. Amateur in 1959 when I beat Charlie Coe. I had an eight-footer at the last hole and I made that putt. I proved to myself that when I was under pressure in a big event that I could make it and I now knew that I could do that.

Then the next year at the U.S. Open at Cherry Hills, I did not win. I sort of gave it away in many ways. But I also figured out that, yeah, I can play with these guys, so that was sort of where I sort of got mine.

GARY PLAYER: What did you finish at Cherry Hills?

JACK NICKLAUS: Second.

GARY PLAYER: Second. To Arnold?

JACK NICKLAUS: Arnold.

GARY PLAYER: You three-putted quite a few —

JACK NICKLAUS: I three-putted 13, three-putted 14 and bogeyed 178.

LEE TREVINO: I look at the stats, that’s what I did. I look at the stats. I never played the individual. I never played match play. My entire life I never played match play, so I never played the individual, I always played the golf course. Always did that.

Nicklaus was the greatest I’d ever seen coming into a U.S. Open or whatever and analyzing. He could almost tell you what the score was going to be within a stroke, and Jack would just wait on you. He would be behind, but he would just keep pounding it because he knew somebody was going to jump out there with a low score in the U.S. Open, always does, and they come back down.

But when I started trying to play and thinking about going on Tour was 1966, I qualified for the U.S. Open at Olympic Fields in San Francisco. Made the cut there, finished 54th as a matter of fact, and the next year I qualified again and went to Baltusrol and finished fifth when he won the tournament.

But I looked at the stats, and I tell my son that now, I said, “I have to take you to a strange course, you’ve got to average 69. If you play here all the time, you’ve got to average 66.” If you can average 69 on a strange golf course, then you’re ready for a tour if you play from the back tees. Because when we were playing, the average score was about 72.

So in order to make money, I mean I won the Money List. I mean that’s what was so phenomenal about Mr. Nelson. They always talked about he won all those tournaments but no one was playing. I always looked at his score and he averaged, what, 68.23 or something.

JACK NICKLAUS: It didn’t make any difference that anybody was playing.

LEE TREVINO: No, it’s the score.

GARY PLAYER: I think it does make a difference if they’ve got people playing.

JACK NICKLAUS: Oh, no, no, I agree with that, but to win 11 tournaments in a row, you’ve got to play pretty well. I don’t care if Joe Blow is playing —

LEE TREVINO: The score says a lot. The average score says a lot. What I did is I finished fifth at Baltusrol, got some invitations, ended up playing 16 tournaments that year and became Rookie of the Year, finished 47th on the money list and they gave me an exemption in ’68. I won The Open in ’68 and it gave me a lifetime exemption. I only qualified once my entire life. I got pretty lucky. Those sticks were working pretty good at that time.